Monday News Roundup 4/25

Enigmatic brother-sister synthpop duo The Knife haven’t released a proper album since 2006’s acclaimed Silent Shout – despite spearheading the noise opera Tomorrow, In A Year and the release of Fever Ray‘s fantastic solo album — but it looks like that’s all set to change. An announcement on the band’s website claims that they’re “currently recording a new album to be released in 2012.” Hopefully we don’t all get Mayan’d beforehand.

Aesop Rock is getting busy, prepping a tour and joining a new trio Hail Mary Mallon, but perhaps the most interesting tidbit we’ve heard is of the rapper’s upcoming collaboration with anti-folk magnate Kimya Dawson. The duo are playing a string of shows together in the Midwest, including sets of material they’ve recorded together. Interesting, but no word on a release date yet. Stay tuned!

It’s a good day for streaming albums, as the latest efforts from Fleet Foxes, The Antlers, andThe Beastie Boys are online for your listening pleasure. NPR has the Foxes here and the Antlers here, while the Boys’ have put theirs up on Soundcloud. So pop in those headphones and enjoy the legal jams!

Just like Wilco in 2008, baseball’s Chicago Cubs nabbed a couple members of Arcade Fire to sing the age-old seventh-inning “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” Will Butler (Win’s brother) and Marika Shaw did the honors, and you can check out the video over at the MLB website. Below, check out Wilco’s take.

In more Chicago-related news, this year’s Lollapalooza lineup will be announced tonight at midnight. The Chicago Tribune has already confirmed Eminem, Muse, and Foo Fighters as headliners, but hey, maybe there’ll be some good bands there too. Lolla takes place August 5-7 in Chicago’s Grant Park.

Hypnotic darkwave trio Salem have a new video for the drugged-up and pitched-down synth-hop track “Sick” from their 2010 debut King Night. It’s a video montage of street fights, squad cars, strippers, motocross bikes, and the band themselves. It’s vaguely NSFW, but then, so is Salem anyway. Just keep that in mind when you head over to Pitchfork to check it out.

Struggling indie label Polyvinyl is clawing itself out of the grime of late, having already picked up the ever-popular Starfucker, and now word has it they’ve nabbed another new addition:emotional noise-poppers Xiu Xiu. An as-yet-untitled record is due out in 2012, and Xiu Xiu themselves are seeing a revamped lineup, borrowing members of Deerhoof and Parenthetical Girls.

Finally, it seems like last weekend’s record-breaking Record Store Day isn’t the only place where music sales are looking up: iTunes reports that in the first quarter of 2011, they’ve cashed in about 1.4 billion dollars (another record). This is a 27 percent jump over last year’s 1.1 billion. Are we out of the dumps? Not by a long shot, but it’s a step in the right direction.